Add New Streams of Revenue to Your Business

by Derek Gehl

Add New Streams of Revenue to Your Business by Advertising for OTHER Companies on Your Web Site

If you're just getting started on the Internet -- or simply looking for ways to add new revenue streams toyour business -- you might consider the option ofplacing ads for other companies' products on your website.

After all, who wouldn't like to make a few extrabucks? And it's so simple -- you just put up a coupleof ads on your site and wait for the cash to rollin, right?

Um... wrong. At least, that's not the way itusually works.

When you're just starting out, your primary focusneeds to be on promoting your OWN business -- not someoneelse's.

t's far better to build a relationship with yourtarget market and generate interest in your own productsthan it is to try generating profits by advertisinganother company's items.

Not only that, but you could be opening yourself up toa whole new set of problems...

• What if your visitors click on the ads and never return to your site?
• What if you just end up sending business to your competitors?
• What if your visitors are turned off by your ads because they see them as nothing more than a "cash grab"?

To make your site attractive to companies looking forpotential advertisers, you'll need to have a great nichemarket, tons of traffic, and the promise of good adplacement on your site.

Most companies won't even consider placing an ad on yoursite until you can guarantee that you're receiving a largenumber of highly targeted visitors on a daily or monthlybasis.

However, there are ways for you to make money throughadvertising on your web site, even if you don't havehuge amounts of traffic. In fact, one of these strategiesmight even help drive traffic your way!

One thing, though:

While promoting other companies' products on your sitemight be a good way to create new streams of income foryour business, it's important to remember that not allads work for all businesses.

If you decide to start experimenting with placing adson your site, there are three things you absolutely HAVEto do:

1. Test

2. Test

3. Test AGAIN!

You want to make sure you're testing the impact of everyelement of your new ad campaigns to make sure they'rehaving a positive effect on your business.

As you start out, be sure to carefully test thefollowing:

• different products for different companies
• different styles of ads
• different types of ad copy
• different positioning of ads on your web site

You need to monitor your conversion rates to make surethat they stay as high as possible as you try out yourvarious ad campaigns. That way, you'll discover whichInternet advertising techniques REALLY work for you andyour business -- and keep working!

The most important thing when choosing which ads toplace on your site is to ensure they are for productsyour target market is actually INTERESTED in.

You'll want to advertise products that complement yourown product or service and offer real benefits to yourmarket. Only then can you guarantee that your visitorswill be happy to see your ads, instead of being turnedoff by them.

There are lots of different ways to promote other people'sproducts. The easiest -- and often the most successful --include...

1. Promoting affiliate products on your web site

2. Starting a targeted Google AdSense campaign

3. Approaching companies directly to ask if you can advertise for them

4. Signing up for a blog-specific ad program

Read on to learn more about IMC's best Internetadvertising strategies!

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1. Promote an affiliate product on your web site
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Joining another company's affiliate program is one of thesimplest ways to get started with Internet advertising.While affiliate links are not technically "ads," they doallow you to make money by promoting someone else'sproduct.

If you're unfamiliar with what an affiliate program is,it's simply a "no-risk" partnership that allows you topromote another company's product or service on yourweb site to earn a percentage of the sales.

As one of the company's "affiliates" (promotion partners),you earn a commission each time someone you've referred totheir web site makes a purchase.

You might post a banner on your web site that links to thecompany's site, or you might publish an article about theirproducts in your newsletter.

No matter how you promote them, though, it's a win-winarrangement for both of you because:

• The company running the affiliate program gets "no-risk" advertising (in most cases, they don't pay you unless one of your referred visitors makes a purchase)
• And you, the affiliate, get the opportunity to earn easy extra income without the hassles of production, packaging, shipping, or customer service. Generally, there is no fee to join and you can leave the program whenever you choose.

Not only that, but affiliate programs can be great fordriving traffic to your site, depending on the popularity ofthe product you're promoting.

If a lot of people are searching for information on thatproduct and you offer it for sale on your site, then allthose searches might help drive your web site to the top ofthe search results -- meaning a whole lot of extra trafficfor you!

Different affiliate programs offer different payout options.Some might offer only 10% commission for each sale theiraffiliates help generate, while other pay up to 50% of each sale!

You'll want to shop around for the best deal for you AND thebest fit for your web site.

To find good affiliate programs, check out the followingdirectories:

• Associate Programs http://www.associateprograms.com
• Affiliates Directory http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com
• Refer-It http://www.refer-it.com
  

And you don't have to stick with just one company'saffiliate program — you can join a whole bunch of them!

In fact, some Internet advertising pros are actuallymaking all their income from signing on with multipleaffiliate programs. They don't even have a product oftheir own!

This is not a strategy for beginners, however, so takesome time to check out the different programs beforeyou consider whether or not this could be an optionfor you.

And remember that to make this work, you have to havea highly-focused niche market and a good site that'sloaded with valuable content and gets a large numberof visitors.

Now let's check out another program that can help youstart generating easy advertising revenues, with verylittle effort on your part...

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2. Use targeted advertising with Google AdSense

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Google's AdSense program ( http://www.google.com/adsense )allows you to make money by placing targeted text ads --generated by Google -- on your pages.

You've probably seen these Google ads on lots of differentweb sites... they often appear in rectangular boxes runningdown the side or across the bottom of a web page with the words"Ads by Google" over the top. These ads are paid for bybusinesses that use Google's pay-per-click program, AdWords.

Once you sign up with Google AdSense, these ads begin to appearon your site, reflecting the content you post there. So if yoursite sells a book on how to recognize authentic baseball cards, for example, the ads that appear at your site might sell baseball cards

As one of Google's AdSense publishers, you earn money everytime a visitor to your site clicks on one of the AdWords ads onyour site.

If you're getting a lot of targeted traffic, and if thesevisitors are interested in the products being advertised inthe Google ads, then that could mean a healthy new sourceof extra income for you!

There are a number of good reasons to start your Internetadvertising campaign with Google AdSense:

• You can choose where on your web page the ads will appear, leaving you in control of how Google uses your site to advertise.
• You can choose different ad formats (like skyscrapers and banners) and colors for your Google Ads. This way, you can make sure that the ads fit into the overall design of your web pages.
• You can track your earnings and figure out how to maximize your AdSense profits by testing the positioning, format, and appearance of the ads. Google provides all the stats you need in one place, which makes it easy for you to test what's working and what's not.
• You can easily block competitive ads or other ads you don't want on your site. After all, you don't want to accidentally end up advertising your competitors' products!

All this, AND Google AdSense is free to join. It's easy, too --all you have to do is complete their simple applicationprocess, and your ads will be up and running right away.

They do all the work of finding relevant ads for your site,and you just collect the payments!

One thing to be aware of, though -- Google ads don't workfor all kinds of sites. If, say, you run a high-end tailoringbusiness, this type of Internet advertising likely won'tsuit the type of service you offer or the general design ofyour web site.

So if you add them to your site, be sure to test them! Youdon't want to lose credibility with your target market --it's just not worth it!

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3. Approach companies directly to ask if you can advertise for them

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If your site is already getting lots of traffic and makinga decent number of sales, then another way to find productsto promote on your site is to look for sites that target thesame niche market as you do and offer products that arecomplementary (as opposed to competitive!) with your own.

For example, if you own a bridal shop, you could approacha local florist to see if they'd like to advertise theirwedding bouquets on your web site. After all, people whoare planning weddings are probably also looking forinformation on where to get their flowers done.

An ad on your site would also be seen as an implicitrecommendation of their product, and could send a tonof relieved brides to their web site, ready to buy. And themore successful your ads for them are, the more you can endup charging for those ads.

Or if you sell car detailing services, you could approacha local auto parts store -- or a local mechanic -- and askthem if they'd be interested in placing an ad on your site.

You already know that your target audience will probably beinterested in the products they offer, so it would be easy toshow them why an ad on your pages could help boost theirsales.

Be sure to contact potential Internet advertising partnersin a professional manner to discuss your ideas for apartnership. Call them on the phone instead of just emailingthem, so your communication is more personal and moreprofessional.

Be ready to supply them with tons of information about yourbusiness and your traffic. The more information you can givethem, the more likely they are to consider your offer.

And above all, make sure they have a solid reputation. Ifyou end up partnering with a questionable company, theiractivities could reflect poorly on YOUR business!

You can also propose a joint-venture relationship, in whichyou advertise their products on your site in exchange for themdoing the same for you. In this situation, they won't pay youfor the ads. However, the extra traffic they send your waycould end up generating even more revenues!

Just be sure to look for possible joint-venture partners whoare getting roughly the same amount of traffic as you are(or maybe even a little more!). If they're TOO big, theyprobably won't be interested in doing business with you.

But if they're not getting any traffic at all, then it probablywon't be worth your while to partner up with them.

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4. Sign up for a blog-specific ad program

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If you already have a blog you should consider signing upto feature blog-specific ads on your site.

The kind of ads you place on your blog really depends on thetype of content you write or the products you sell. The keyis to consider the kinds of ads that YOUR target audience willfind valuable.

For example, if you're a fishing guide, and your blog is allabout some of your recent fishing trips -- the kind of stuffanglers want to read about! -- then the ads you have onyour blog should be for products that your market wants to buy,like rods, reels, and tackle.

Then, because they're all fired up about fishing after readingyour great blog, they might be tempted to click on one of yourads and make a purchase!

Here are some great ways to attract advertisers to your blog...

• Sign up with a context-based ad program like Google AdSense ( http://www.google.com/adsense ) that will automatically generate ads for your web site that you can put up within minutes of being accepted in their program.
• Crisp Ads ( http://www.crispads.com/ ) offers a similar program, but only for blogs.
• Place Amazon Associates ( http://associates.amazon.com/ ) ads on your site and feature ads for specific products you PERSONALLY use or are happy to endorse. That way, your customers are responding to your recommendation as well as the fact that you've chosen to advertise products that are complementary to your own.
• Get advertisers interested in your blog with a simple link they can use to contact you for rates and requirements. This link can be a simple message saying, "Click here to find out how to advertise on this blog!"
• That way, anyone visiting your site is free to discuss advertising opportunities with you.
• Sign up with an advertiser-publisher connection program like BlogAds ( http://www.blogads.com/ ) or AdBrite ( http://www.adbrite.com/ ), and get listed in their publishers directory.
• One important note, however: with these types of ads, the advertisers look through listings of THOUSANDS of blogs to choose the "right" people to promote their products.
• Unless you're getting thousands of visitors a day, they might not be all that interested in doing business with you.

If you don't already have a blog, you should definitelyconsider starting one. They're one of the hottest traffic-generating strategies on the Web today! And you can setone up in just five minutes with a free hosting site likeBlogger ( http://www.blogger.com/ ) or Wordpress.( http://www.wordpress.com/ )

To learn more about how a blog can help with your business,check out:

http://www.MarketingTips.com/trafficsecrets

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5. How to present ads to your market in ways that maximize their effectiveness

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Have you ever clicked on a web site that seems to have moreads than it has actual content of any kind? Sometimes youcan't even figure out what the site is supposed to be about!

If you assault your visitors with a dozen ads for totallydifferent products, not only are you going to totally confusethem, you're going to drive them away from your site in droves-- and once they leave, they'll never be back!

Remember: your site needs to grab your market's attention andmake them want to stay! If you want to place ads on your sitefor items that complement your product, that's fine.

Just be sure your ads aren't tacky, or overly distracting, or-- worst of all -- that they don't ruin the credibility of yourmain site sales message.

If you're placing Google AdSense (or other contextual textads) on your site, you have some control on how they look-- but not much. They're still quite obviously ads.

You can, however, choose colors and sizes and layouts forthe ads (banner, skyscraper, etc.) that suit the rest ofyour site design.

No matter what kind of ads you're placing on your site,make sure they are as discreet and tasteful as possible. Tryplacing ads in the right or left margins, where they won'tcompete with your own images or copy.

When you're promoting affiliate products or advertisingother companies' products for them directly, you have a lotmore freedom to place the ads on your site in creativeways.

You can put up something as simple as a link to the othercompany's sales site, or even something as detailed as aproduct review.

In fact, product reviews are one of the best possible waysto get your target market interested in the item you'readvertising.

Simply post a detailed, helpful analysis of the product --and a summary of all its benefits -- and publish it directlyon your web site, or even in your blog or newsletter.

Reviews come off as more of a recommendation than an ad,which gives them credibility in your visitors' eyes.

Which brings me to a really important point: if you'regoing to endorse a product, make sure that the product issomething you've actually TRIED.

Unless you've used the product and believe in the thingsyou're saying or publishing about it, you could stand tolose some serious credibility in your customers' eyes!

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Final thoughts

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can't emphasize enough how important it is to makesure that you have established your OWN business beforeyou consider advertising for other companies on your website.

It's not a matter of putting up a few ads and grabbing apaycheck -- it takes a lot of research and testing on analready ESTABLISHED site to make even the best Internetadvertising strategies truly pay off.

If you don't have a regular flow of visitors to yoursite, no one is going to be checking out YOUR products,let alone the ads you have for other people's products!

You may also find that you have a target audience thatresists the presence of ads on a web site. If you'reputting them off by placing ads on your pages, then youcould end up losing more customers and revenue than youactually gain!

To make sure this doesn't happen, remember to alwaysTEST every single aspect of each new ad campaign you run.

Only try one technique at a time -- that's the ONLY way toeffectively track how successful the advertising is for youAND the company whose products you're promoting.

Once you can tell how a certain strategy is working, youcan make an informed decision on whether or not it trulysuits your site, your visitors, and the company you're runningthe ads for.

But once you do discover the best Internet advertisingstrategies for YOUR site, then you can try using those methodsto promote another product, and then another, and another.

And soon all those added revenue streams will combine to swellyour profits to record size!And to learn more about the Internet advertising strategiesI've talked about in this newsletter, check out:

http://www.MarketingTips.com/tipsltr.html

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or more) per year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over $40 Million in online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html
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